I hate the insistence that every high school senior should go to prom. I’m not that kind of person, and I really don’t care about it. But even teachers are obsessing over this event.

Today, my English teacher asked, “So who is definitely not going to prom?” What kind of an asinine question is that? Am I supposed to raise my hand and be the target of an onslaught of questions from fellow classmates? I ignored the question, trying to focus on what little academia existed in the classroom. No one else raised their hand and believe me, not everyone is going.

There are many beliefs people conform to. I broke out of that mold a few years ago. If all we did is follow in the footsteps of those before us, we’d achieve nothing new. Just the same old characters year after year. The topic of prom and high school dating is something where I stand firm on: fuck it. I’m not a normal teenager, and I don’t follow the “standard procedures” of high school.

If students cared about prom and dating as much as they did about school, we’d have damn good students. If they study as hard as they party and drink, then our nation would be considered “intelligent” again.